Israeli-Palestinian peace talks meeting to be called off over protest deaths?

Men carry the body of a Palestinian shot dead by Israeli troops during his funeral at Qalandiya Refugee Camp near the West Bank city of Ramallah August 26, 2013. (Reuters / Darren Whiteside) / Reuters

Scheduled peace talks with Israel will not go ahead, Palestinian officials said after IDF officers shot dead 3 Palestinians in a border clash. But now the US states the negotiations have not yet been cancelled.

Israeli officers shot three Palestinians dead during a clash at a
refugee camp when an arrest operation spiraled out of control.
The IDF are now investigating the altercation that left 15
injured, six of whom are now in hospital in critical condition.

Hundreds of Palestinians clashed with Israeli Defense Force
troops on Monday at Kalandiya refugee camp, in the West Bank,
north of Jerusalem. Palestinian hospital officials identified the
three men as Rubeen Abed Fares, 30; Yunis Jahjouh, 22; and Jihad
Aslan, 20. Fares and Jahjouh died after sustaining bullet wounds
to the chest, while Aslan died of brain damage.

The violence erupted during a dawn undercover mission to take a
suspected terrorist into custody, said an IDF spokesperson,
claiming a group of Palestinians attacked the police. Palestinian
news agency Ma’an reported that the suspected terrorist was
Yousef al-Khatib, who had recently been released from Israeli
custody after 10 years in jail.

“During a nighttime incursion of security forces to arrest a
suspect in Kalandiya, southeast of Ramallah, they were met with
violent and disorderly conduct by hundreds of Palestinians who
attacked them,” said an IDF statement.

The statement went on to say that the Israeli officers opened
fire with live rounds because they felt “immediate danger to
their lives.”

The account from Palestinian officials differs insofar as they
maintain there was never a threat to the lives of the security
forces involved, Israeli publication Haaretz reported. Citing
Palestinian witnesses, Haaretz wrote that rioters threw stones,
but did not fire at the IDF officers.

The Palestinian Authority condemned the "assassination" of
the Kalandiya men and "series of Israeli crimes," Nabil
Abu Rudaineh, the spokesman for PA President Mahmoud Abbas was
quoted as saying by WAFA.

"The meeting that was to take place in Jericho...today was
cancelled because of the Israeli crime committed in Kalandiya
today," an official from the Palestinian Authority told AFP,
adding that there would be "repercussions" for the
incident.

Representatives of the Palestinian Authority were due to meet
with Israeli negotiators on Monday in Jericho before the talks
were shelved.

Later in the day, however, the US State Department said the peace
initiative was set to continue.

"I can assure you that no meetings have been cancelled. The
parties are engaged in serious and sustained negotiations,"
Mari Harf, a spokeswoman for the State Department, told Reuters
on Monday.

Tensions have been rising between the Israelis and Palestinians
recently following Israel’s announcement of plans to build
another 1,200 homes in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The
Palestinian Authority and Israeli government recently agreed to
revitalize peace talks brokered by the US, but the Authority has
condemned the latest construction announcement as a deliberate
attempt to “scupper” negotiations.

“If the Israeli government believes that every week they’re
going to cross a red line with settlement activity, if they go on
with this behavior, what they’re advertising is the
unsustainability of the negotiations,” Palestine’s chief
negotiator Saeb Ereka told Reuters.

As a concession, Israel released 26 Palestinian prisoners on
August 6. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas demanded the
release of prisoners who have been behind bars since before the
1993 Oslo Peace Accords took effect.

Peace talks were put on hold in 2010 because of Israel’s refusal
to halt its illegal settlement program.